User:Scheckelse/sandbox

Norse Greenland

History of Greenland
A map of the Eastern Settlement on Greenland, covering approximately the modern municipalities of Qaqortoq, Narssaq and Nanortalik. Eiriksfjord (Erik's fjord) and his farm Brattahlid are shown, as is the location of the bishopric at Gardar. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Norsemen from Iceland first settled Greenland in the 980s. There is no special reason to doubt the authority of the information that the sagas supply regarding the very beginning of the settlement, but they cannot be treated as primary evidence for the history of Norse Greenland because they embody the literary preoccupations of writers and audiences in medieval Iceland that are not always reliable.[4]

Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eiríkr rauði), having been banished from Iceland for manslaughter, explored the uninhabited southwestern coast of Greenland during the three years of his banishment.[5][6] He made plans to entice settlers to the area, naming it Greenland on the assumption that "people would be more eager to go there because the land had a good name".[7] The inner reaches of one long fjord, named Eiriksfjord after him, was where he eventually established his estate Brattahlid. He issued tracts of land to his followers.[8]

Map showing the extent of the Norse world At its peak the colony consisted of two settlements. The Eastern was at the southwestern tip of Greenland, while the Western Settlement was about 500 km up the west coast, inland from present-day Nuuk. A smaller settlement near the Eastern Settlement is sometimes considered the Middle Settlement. The combined population was around 2,000–3,000.[9] At least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists.[8] Norse Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported walrus ivory, furs, rope, sheep, whale or seal blubber, live animals such as polar bears, supposed "unicorn horns" (in reality narwhal tusks), and cattle hides. In 1126, the population requested a Bishop (headquartered at Garðar), and in 1261, they accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian King. They continued to have their own law and became almost completely independent after 1349, the time of the Black Death. In 1380, the Norwegian Kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark.[10]

Climate and Norse Greenland
Norse Greenlanders were limited to scattered fjords on the island that provided a spot for their animals (such as cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and cats) to be kept and farms to be established. In these fjords, the farms depended upon byres to host their livestock in the winter, and routinely participated in the culling of their herds in order to survive the season. The coming warmer seasons meant that livestocks were taken from their byres to pasture, the most fertile being controlled by the most powerful farms and the church. What was produced by livestock and farming was supplemented with subsistence hunting of mainly seal and caribou as well as walrus for trade. The Norse mainly relied on the Nordrsetur hunt, a communal hunt of migratory harp seals that would take place during spring. Trade was highly important to the Greenland Norse and they relied on imports of lumber due to the barrenness of Greenland. In turn they imported goods such as walrus ivory and hide, live polar bears, and narwhal tusks. Ultimately these setups were vulnerable as they relied on migratory patterns created by climate as well as the wellbeing on the few fjords on the island.

A portion of the time the Greenland settlements existed was during The Little Ice Age and the climate was, overall, becoming cooler and more humid. As climate began to cool and humidity began to increase, this brought longer winters and shorter springs, more storms and affected the migratory patterns of the harp seal. Pasture space began to dwindle and fodder yields for the winter became much smaller. This combined with regular herd culling made it hard to maintain livestock, especially for the poorest of the Greenland Norse. In spring, the voyages to where migratory harp seals could be found, became more dangerous due to more frequent storms, and the lower population of harp seals meant that Nordrsetur hunts became less successful, making subsistence hunting extremely difficult. The strain on resources made trade difficult, and as time went on, Greenland exports lost value in the European market due to competing countries and the disinterest and what was being traded.

In addition, it seemed that the Norse were unwilling to intergrate with the indigenous Thule of Greenland, either through marriage or culture. There is evidence of contact as seen through the Thule archaeological record including ivory depictions of the norse as well as bronze and steel artifacts. However, there is essentially no material evidence of the Thule among Norse artifacts. In older research it was thought that it was not climate change alone that lead to Norse decline, but their unwillingness to adapt. Some examples are if the Norse decided to focus their subsistence hunting on the ringed seal (which could be hunted year round, though individually), and decided to reduce or do away with their communal hunts, food would have been much less scarce during the winter season. Had Norse individuals used skin instead of wool to produce their clothing, they would have been able to fair better nearer to the coast, and wouldn't have been as limited to the fjords. However, more recent research has shown that the Norse tried to adapt in their own ways. Some of these attempts included increased subsistence hunting. A significant amount of bones of marine life can be found at the settlements suggesting increased hunting with the absence of farmed food. In addition, pollen records show that the Norse didn't devastate the small forests and foliage that existed as previously thought. Instead the Norse ensured that overgrazed or overused sections were given time to regrow and moved to other areas. Norse farmers also attempted to adapt. With the increased need for winter fodder and smaller pastures, they would self fertilize their lands in an attempt to keep up with the new demands caused by the changing climate. However, even with these attempts, climate change was not the only thing putting pressure on the Greenland Norse. The economy was changing, and the exports they relied on were losing value. Current research suggests that the Norse were unable to maintain themselves because of economic and climatic change happening all at once.

Aftermath
For centuries it remained unclear whether the Icelandic stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. The sagas first gained serious historic respectability when, in 1837, the Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn pointed out the possibility for a Norse settlement in, or voyages to, North America. North America, by the name Winland, first appeared in written sources in a work by Adam of Bremen from approximately 1075. The most important works about North America and the early Norse activities there, namely the Sagas of Icelanders, first reached written form only in the 13th and 14th centuries.[citation needed]

Evidence of Norse west of Greenland came in the 1960s when archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband, outdoorsman and author Helge Ingstad, excavated a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. The location of the various lands described in the sagas remains unclear, however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland poses a thornier question. Most believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement represents the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others argue that the sagas depict Vinland as warmer than Newfoundland and therefore lying farther south.[citation needed]

In 2012 Canadian researchers identified possible signs of Norse outposts in Nanook at Tanfield Valley on Baffin Island, as well as on Nunguvik, Willows Island and Avayalik.[27][28][29] Unusual fabric cordage found on Baffin Island in the 1980s and stored at the Canadian Museum of Civilization was identified in 1999 as possibly of Norse manufacture; that discovery led to more in-depth exploration of the Tanfield Valley archaeological site.[citation needed]

Archeological findings in 2015 at Point Rosee, on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, were originally thought to reveal evidence of the location being a bog iron-smelting site and therefore a possible second 10th century Viking settlement in Canada. The possible settlement was initially discovered through satellite imagery and magnetometer readings and archaeologists have begun excavating the area.[30][31] Dr. Birgitta Linderoth Wallace, an expert on the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, is unsure of the identification of Point Rosee as a Norse site.[32]

The Skálholt Map, made by an Icelandic teacher in 1570, depicts part of north-eastern North America mentioning Helluland, Markland and Vinland.[33]